Sep 06 2009
A Significant Nothing And a Myth About Aging
Here’s a breath of fresh science:
Study finds no link between cognitive decline, socioeconomic status in elderly
How often have your read a title to a science article that begins, “Study finds no link”? Wonderful. As I’ve said before, null results are important.
Think of it this way. A person has a climbing accident. Followed by x-rays. She says, “Well, they took x-rays and found that I have a broken bone in my lower leg.” Significant, right? What if the climber had said, “Well, they took x-rays of my leg and found no broken bones.” Is that insignificant?
As for the new research in question — the “no link” between cognitive decline and SES in the elderly, it is indeed informative. In the developmental psychology texts I have used, many aspects of human development have been associated with social and economic factors, at least indirectly. Like overall health. Higher SES is associated with better health in late life. Of course, there are mediating variables, including more money and thus better healthcare, etc.
But there was an additional finding I found most noteworthy. In the past, a development psychology mantra on cognitive development in late life has gone something like, “use it or lose it.” It seems that those individuals who engage more in intellectually taxing activities better retain their cognitive skills later in life. Thus, “use it or lose it.”
Yet that might not be true. The UCLA researchers conducting the study also found this:
The findings indicate that disparities in cognitive functioning among older Americans of different groups are almost entirely due to differences in the cognitive peaks they reached earlier in life, not to differences in rates of decline.
What this might mean is that individuals with high cognitive functioning tend to engage in more intellectually taxing activities. They retain more of their cognitive abilities late in life simply because they had more to begin with.
So those who “use it” tend to have “more of it” and thus don’t drop as far, “losing it,” as others.
Not quite a rosy, self-empowering message. But if it is the truth, I want to know it.
